Praying for preaching

Mike Fabarez's "Preaching that Changes Lives" is an excellent reminder to preach with life-change in mind. For life-change to take place, prayer during the preparation, during the delivery, and after the sermon is over is essential.

"Plenty of naive anticipation has been dashed before noon on Sunday when a young preacher discovers that shiny accessories are no substitute for the power required to drive any sermon into the hearts and lives of our hearers. Without prayer, our sermons may look good on paper - they may even sound good in the pulpit - but you can be that they will never leave the church parking lot." (pg. 69)

1. Pray for the crafting of the sermon.

"Pray that the message you are preparing would be an evident part of your own life. Pray for the protection of your sermon preparation time. Pray that you will be given grace and illumination to rightly divide His Word. Pray that the words you choose to frame your outline would be effective tools for the Holy Spirit to employ. Pray that you would have insight into the needs of your audience as they relate to the sermon
you are preparing."

2. Pray for the delivery of the sermon.

"Pray that people will attend the preaching event. Pray that your audience willl arrive in the right frame of mind. Pray that God will guard against preaching distractions. Pray for clarity in your vocabulary. Pray that God will give your audience understanding. Ask God for the most effective and fruitful sermon you have ever preached."

3. Pray for the response to the sermon.

"Pray that people will put the sermon into practice. Pray that the sermon will not be compartmentalized. Pray that the application of the sermon will be contagious. Prayer that the sermon itself will be repeatedly 'delivered'."

Cultivating Gravity & Gladness in Preaching

John Piper's "The Supremacy of God in Preaching" is a compelling call to preach for God's glory. In it Piper offers these seven practical suggestions for cultivating gravity and gladness in preaching. (Note how different this council might be from popular, image-driven counsel, not to mention the very idea of cultivating gravity.)

1. Strive for practical, earnest, glad-hearted holiness in every area of your life. You can't be someone in the pulpit you aren't during the week.

2. Make your life - especially the life of your study - a life of constant communion with God in prayer. The aroma of God will not linger on a person who does not linger in the presence of God. Fruitful study and fervent prayer live and die together.

3. Read books written by those who bleed Bible when you prick them and who are blood-earnest about the truths they discuss.

4. Draw your mind often to the contemplation of death. Death and sickness have an amazing way of blowing the haze of triviality out of life and replacing it with the wisdom of gravity and gladness in the hope of resurrection of joy.

5. Consider the biblical teaching that as a preacher you will be judged with greater strictness. (James 3:1; Hebrews 13:17)

6. Consider the example of Jesus. He was as kind and tender and gentle as a righteous man could be...He never preached a careless sermon, and there is no record of a careless word.

7. Strive with all your strength to know God and to humble yourself under his mighty hand. (I Peter 5:6)